Cwmbran Life celebrated its second birthday yesterday. There was no cake as I didn’t know until I spotted that the blog on my crawl around Cwmbran’s real ale pubs yesterday was the 599th post.
Six hundred seems like a nice landmark and the 500th post came and went some time ago. I had a look back in the archive and found that the first post was made on 23 August 2011.
As I was updating the real ale blog with a new photo as we sat in the Queen Inn last night my wife joked: “I may set up a blog called Cwmbran Life Widow”. 🙂
Five things I’ve learned from those 599 posts
1. Set up a Facebook page- The Cwmbran Life Facebook page been great fun and a chance to post quirky things that aren’t enough for a mention on the blog. It allows you to talk in different voice. This post of me doing a leap at Cwmbran Boating Lake got over 700 likes.
2. Get mobile- Very few posts on Cwmbran Life are made from a computer. The WordPress mobile app on android and Blogsy on the iPad are my favourite apps.
3. Get organised- I use Evernote where possible to store story ideas and drafts. It helps keep track of emails, Facebook messages and other places where you pick up stories. Put them all in Evernote.
4. Have an understanding partner- Blogging does take time but it is fun and to be honest makes me a happier person. My wife is very understanding. We’ve been in a pub together and I’ve picked up a titbit of information and spend 20 minutes chatting to someone I’ve never met before.
5. Talk, talk and talk- Be nosy. Talk to people. On yesterday’s real ale crawl I picked up the mobile number of a pub landlord who has bought something that is definitely the biggest in Cwmbran (story to follow in coming weeks). I also heard a funny tale about a sports club who have booked a celebrity for a fundraising dinner but can’t get a venue.
5 highlights from the 599 posts
1. Dane Bowers has signed to play football for Cwmbran Celtic football club– I was able to press publish on this story as I had the mobile number of someone on the club committee who was able to confirm the rumour. It is one of those stories that makes you go ‘what?’. This story was picked up by the South Wales Argus and mentioned on BBC Wales and other websites.
2. Cwmbran Life wins ‘Best Community Blog’ at the Wales Blog Awards– The title sums it up 🙂
3. Cwmbran man is Axl Rose in the world’s best Guns N’ Roses tribute band– Brilliant story about a local man who tours the world and has played in front of huge crowds. This story was picked up the Wales on Sunday.
4. Cwmbran mum’s text to teenage daughter goes viral with 27,000 likes on Facebook– Imagine posting a photo of a text your mum sent you on Facebook, going to bed and waking up to 27,000 red notifications. Yep, this is what happened in Cwmbran. This story was picked up the Sun Online.
5. Cwmbran’s Scene 123. Meet the man who locked the door for the last time after 40 years of films. – I did a story on the cinema closing down and the owner emailed me so I was able to go and visit him in his home. People had lovely memories of Scene 123.
Next steps
Cwmbran Life does take up time so I’m planning on paying to get it hosted and then looking at how I can cover those costs by offering advertising on the site.